Lessons of Hard Work
6 a.m. in a field near Lennox, South Dakota, in 1981. It was summertime for this soon-to-be junior in high school. In rural America in those days, there were plenty of kids like me who didn’t make minimum wage at McDonald’s, Target, or the local grocery store. We were up before that orange ball in the sky peeked over the horizon. Our task for the next six hours or so was to “walk beans” or “throw hay bales.” Neither was my idea of fun. I’m pretty sure that very few teenagers are excited to be up before the sun, regardless of the decade or century they live in. However, in my household, it was expected.
My parents both grew up on farms and understood the value of “work.” They thought it would be a great idea for their children to be exposed to physical labor. Hence, my summers in the fields of small-town America. Sometimes, a cushy job at Target starting around 10 a.m. sounded quite appealing. In retrospect, I would not trade those early mornings of back-breaking work for anything.
What did I learn from those early work experiences? Probably more things than I ever realized before putting pen to paper—or fingers to these computer keys.
Lesson #1 – Pride in accomplishing something.
There is a certain amount of pride that comes from working with your hands and engaging in physical labor. Chopping weeds out of a bean field or throwing hay bales onto a flatbed must build some type of character. Becoming physically fatigued teaches you that you can always do more than you think you can. I think this type of work helps foster a certain toughness and never-give-up attitude. There’s pride in creating something or in being able to see what you’ve accomplished through hard work.
Lesson #2 – Appreciation for physical work.
I had a student years ago tell me that her father believed all work is equally important. I do believe this to be true, especially after years of reflection. We reward those with special gifts, whether they are athletically gifted or extraordinarily intelligent. These people can do things us mere mortals can only dream of, and they are heavily rewarded by society. Yet, they still need to buy food and drive vehicles created by those working in manual labor. How long could any of us survive without the people who create the creature comforts we all enjoy? We often fail to think about all the people it took to get food on the table, put that car in the garage, or install a new air conditioning unit during a recent heat wave. That is another story! The fact that I once knew what it felt like to put in a “hard day of work” helps me appreciate that work. I’m glad I don’t have to work that hard today—a little yard work is enough for me.
Lesson #3 – Perspective gained from early life experiences.
Things we learn as kids often become ingrained in our psyche and dominate our future habits. When we are young, we often don’t understand the lessons we’re learning at the time. There’s an adage about the intelligence of your parents throughout life. Maybe you’ve heard it: When you’re ten, your parents know just about everything. When you become a teenager, you’re convinced they know absolutely nothing and just don’t get it. When you move away from home and get a “real job” or start a career, they become increasingly informed again. By the time you become a middle-aged adult, you begin to understand most of the lessons they were teaching you early in life. Learning about hard physical work early in life had a great effect on me today. That sometimes-punishing work helped me throughout my work life and helped to prepare me for challenges that I would face professionally and personally.
I’m not saying that if you didn’t have to work physically demanding jobs as a young person, you don’t have a great work ethic. I just know that it helped me overcome my natural tendency to maybe find shortcuts.
If you haven’t thought about some of the experiences you had early in life and how they shaped your current self, maybe my reflection will encourage you to do so. I am sure that you also developed many habits that make you who you are today from working back in those teenage years. I haven’t thought about the bean and hay fields for years. I can smile about them now. As a sixteen-year-old, I may have been cursing that 5:15am alarm clock buzzing.